The call for a two-day strike by the central trade unions in Punjab and Haryana on Monday had a significant impact. The strike affected banking, insurance, transport and many other services on Monday. As a result, the common man also had to face a lot of trouble. Farmers and power engineers supported this anti-privatization movement.
The decision comes following a meeting on March 22 where the trade unions said that they would protest against the Centre’s “anti-worker, anti-farmer, anti-people and anti-national policies”.
Due to this, a dharna was staged outside the Guru Hargobind Thermal Power Station at Lehra Mohabbat in Bathinda district by the contract employees demanding regularization of their jobs. Asha and Anganwadi workers also joined the strike. Charanjit Kaur of Anganwari Workers Union spoke against the policies of the government while the bankers opposed the merger.
Jasveer Singh Dhiman, President, PSEB Engineers Association in Patiala asked the government to withdraw the Power (Amendment) Bill, 2021 to cancel the privatization process in Chandigarh, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Puducherry. He demanded integration of production, transmission and distribution of power utilities as well as filling up of vacancies and regularization of jobs. Workers, on the other hand, are demanding an old pension scheme for post-2004 workers and want the government to scrap the new pension scheme.
In Chandigarh, Haryana Congress president Shelja claimed that the governments have harassed the general public by refusing to heed the demands of the employees. She said that his party had been opposing the privatization of roadways from the very beginning while the government was reducing its fleet and promoting private permits. She claimed that traders and farmers were also bitter, so the BJP was unlikely to win the next assembly elections. Demanding the purchase of a hassle-free crop from April 1 in addition to sufficient urea and DAP, Shelja said, "We have not seen a single year in five when the farmers' portal has been running smoothly."